… with comments

Patriarchs & Daughters: Pooh Understands

As you have probably gathered by now, particularly if you have read my post “Women as Slaves & as Free” , I am skeptical of both patriarchy and revolutionary feminists—particularly the kind with the angst. However, I’ve been a bit lopsided thus far; I have given patriarchs a good beating here in the Wood and have said nothing about the revolutionary feminists. But I’m not ready to say much about revolutionary feminists. So, in the hopes of persuading more manly men that they aren’t necessarily all that manly, in the time being I’m going to roll the dice and hope for a successful credibility pump by letting a cat out of my bag. A long time ago—oh, so long I cannot even imagine how I could count the years—I was a patrichalist of sorts; I doubt I fit the “mold” in any simple way, but some of my concerns were certainly distinctive of the patriarchy Vision Forum is branded with today.

While in Escondido, California many many many years ago and fresh out of Kirk culture, I quickly became concerned by the arrogant and Gnostic approach to “true” religion I encountered in the Reformed academic and laity communities—if you have been around the confessionalist “truly reformed” (TRs) you probably have a sense of what I am talking about. One TRer called himself a “ballistic BTer.” And indeed he was; we were both happy with his self-crafted label. I wanted to stay friends with everyone, and we actually did a pretty good job at this, enjoying a good deal of giving and receiving hospitality in the sunshine—the congregation we were a part of was actually a fairly warm and hospitable bunch. However, I of course also did what any Pooh Bear would do in that sort of environment far removed from the Wood. I started a printed publication called Semper Reformans (emphasizing the connotation of present tense reforming). This publication made just about everyone a little bit frightened, by design of course; it was in a sense an ecumenical ministry. In any case, in an article called “Covenant Studies: Our Young Maidens 3” I concluded,

And this leads to another application of courtship. Fathers must be around. Courtship takes place within the domain of a household. A household is both a covenantal and geographic entity. The geographic element of a household is not as important as its covenantal nature, but community-type covenants themselves are almost always geographically grounded. If a church will not allow membership to continue once a member has been geographically removed for more than 6 months, then how much more so should this be the case within the intimacy of familial rule and responsibility. If courtship is practiced, then the general case will be the dwelling of a daughter within her father’s household.

Of course, most conservative women, by the time they are 18, will be at the University of Maine instead, or some other such place. This should not be a stumbling block for us however, but rather further demonstration of the importance of practicing biblical courtship. This mass foolishness of imposing an independent household on our daughters is simply the fruit of a church culture that not only does not practice what scripture says about young women and fathers, but despises it.

Whew! So there you have it. There’s my cat.

I remember trying to take issue with the holy Van Til a long time ago. The general conclusion of the Orthodox Van Tillian, no matter what it was I said or did, was that I obviously just didn’t understand. If I understood the great system of Van Til, I would like it…worship it perhaps. We have also seen something similar to this from a fellow writing in about my challenge to the Platonic Covenant Idea. Regarding patriarchy, then, I’m hoping we can at least get beyond the concern that I just don’t understand.

About Pooh’s Think With Comments

UPDATE (9/07): Mr. Metzler has again claimed that he supports open dialogue, and again he refusesto open his site to comments. I challenge him to do so.

Michael Metzler is the author of Pooh’s Think. He claims that he promotes open dialogue, but he blocks all comments on his blog. This blog was not for the webmaster to comment on Mr. Metzler’s behavior, but rather to allow anyone to comment.

This page consisted totally of Mr. Metzler’s own blog posts, republished here so that discussion can take place. Nothing was added or deleted. Comments are totally unmoderated and will stay that way. Pages will no longer be updated on a regular basis.